The Next Web

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ByteDance unveiled Seedance 2.5 on Tuesday at its Volcano Engine FORCE conference in Beijing, a video generation model that produces 30-second clips at native 4K resolution from a single prompt. The company skipped four intermediate versions entirely, jumping straight from its predecessor to signal

Anthropic launches Claude Tag, an always-on AI teammate that lives in your Slack channels

11 hours ago

Anthropic is launching Claude Tag in research preview, an “always-on Claude” that lives inside Slack and acts as a persistent AI teammate. The feature lets users tag @Claude to get insights in conversations and assign tasks. It is available to Claude Enterprise and Claude Team customers starting tod

A fake AI agent skill passed every security scanner and reportedly reached 26,000 agents

11 hours ago

Security firm AIR built a fake AI agent skill, pushed it through a popular skill marketplace and promoted it with an Instagram ad, and says it reached roughly 26,000 agents, including some on corporate accounts. Every skill security scanner the firm tested it against marked it safe. The payload was

Meta’s new prediction market app Arena could bring betting to 3 billion users

12 hours ago

Mark Zuckerberg has directed a small team at Meta to build a smartphone app that would compete with prediction market platforms Polymarket and Kalshi, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. The app, internally called Arena, would operate independently from Facebook and Instagram. Meta declined to c

The Brexit bill comes due: ten years, seven prime ministers, and an economy 6% smaller than it should be

12 hours ago

Ten years ago today, 52% of the British electorate voted to leave the European Union. The decade that followed delivered seven prime ministers, a permanently weakened currency, and an economy that a landmark study now estimates is between 6% and 8% smaller than it would have been had the country vot

SpaceX draws $89 billion in demand for its debut bond sale, one of the largest US offerings this year

SpaceX has drawn roughly $89 billion in investor demand for its debut US bond sale, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, setting the stage for one of the largest investment-grade offerings this year. The company is seeking to raise between $20 billion and $25 billion from a five-tranche deal expected to p

Oracle cut 21,000 jobs this year and its SEC filing explicitly blames AI

Oracle’s global workforce fell to 141,000 full-time employees as of 31 May 2026, down from 162,000 a year earlier, a net reduction of roughly 21,000 people. The company’s annual regulatory filing stated plainly that “the adoption and deployment of AI technologies across our operations have resulted,

Google is simultaneously the most dominant and most vulnerable it has ever been

Google’s financial performance has never been stronger. Alphabet posted $109.9 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2026, up 22 per cent year on year, the fastest growth rate in any quarter since 2022, with search advertising revenue climbing 19.1 per cent and queries hitting an all-time high.

Stark Defence raises €500M led by Sequoia and Founders Fund at a valuation above €3.5 billion

Stark Defence, the Berlin-based strike drone startup founded in 2024, has raised €500 million in a round led by Sequoia Capital and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Bloomberg reported on Monday. The deal values the company at more than three and a half billion euros, roughly triple the €1 billion mark i

Europe’s biggest tech CEOs have formed a standing lobby group with a direct line to von der Leyen

Seven of Europe’s largest technology companies have created a permanent dialogue with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, pressing the bloc to deregulate faster and let European firms consolidate. The group, which calls itself the European Tech Creators, collectively generates €417 b

6 biggest tech nightmares to avoid next time you travel abroad

Drop me on a Balinese coastline with a decent paperback and my smartphone, and I’ll luxuriate for two weeks straight. But fly me out to the same spot with a Nokia 3310 and a physical map, like the one my dad used to carry, and I’ll probably have a nervous breakdown. Most of us can agree that we’re h

Meet the finalists of the TNW València startup pitch battle

Some of Europe’s hottest startups arrived at TNW València last week to develop ideas, expand networks, create new leads, and — and most importantly of all — fight. Not in the physical sense, of course, but in a fiercely-contested TNW València pitch battle. After surviving a series of fiery knockout

TNW València has arrived! Here are some highlights from Day 1

TNW València is finally here! Founders, investors, business leaders, and tech enthusiasts descended on València’s marina this morning to discover the next in tech, now. Before long, the venue — nestled between the historic inner city and the crystal clear waters of the Mediterranean — was bustling w

Stockholm is a world-class tech hub: 6 startups and scaleups to watch

Once predominantly known for IKEA, Ericsson, and Volvo, in the past decade, Sweden has emerged as one the most valued tech ecosystems in Europe, with Stockholm ranking as the fifth top performer in 2021. The success of Swedish startups such as Tink and Spotify has turned the capital city into a worl

Opinion: The AI pope coat is the shape of hyperreality to come

By now, you’ll have seen it. Pope Francis walks across the frame, his focus on the mid-distance. He’s brightly lit as though it’s early morning. A silver cross hangs from his neck, dangling over his snow-white, Balenciaga-inspired puffer jacket. It’s the baller bishop, the steezy father, his holy dr

Why third-party app stores are good for Apple’s users — and the company

With the passage of the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) in 2022, online platforms, including Apple, with EU revenues of 75 billion euros or more and at least 45 million active monthly end users must open up their devices to third party app stores. The DMA aims to end unfair practices by l

Award-winning economist has tapped AI to close the gender equity gap

The gender equity gap in the tech sector is well-documented. Research has found that women occupy only 22% of all tech roles across European companies, while the proportion of funding raised by female-only teams has dropped from 3% to 1% since 2018. The issue is prevalent at every level of the indus

3 things you can do to stand out in a job interview

Congratulations! You’ve just landed an interview for a position you really want… although now comes the hard part. Generally considered to be the most daunting stage of the entire job hunt, the interview experience can be overwhelming, nerve-wracking and wholly unpleasant, quite frankly, especially

Swedish startup takes commuting by boat to new heights — literally

Is it a boat or is it a plane? Put your glasses on! This is clearly an electrically-powered hydrofoil passenger ferry. The brainchild of Swedish startup Candela, the P-12 Shuttle is set to become the fastest and longest-range electric passenger vessel in the world when it launches this summer. Fou

How an outsider’s freedom can make a successful startup founder

Building a startup in a sector you’ve never worked in might seem a risky move, but it can actually provide a competitive advantage. That’s certainly proven true for Vivino. Founded in 2010 in Copenhagen, the scaleup has raised $221 million in funding, and become the world’s most downloaded wine app

The world’s first self-driving bus fleet will soon hit Scotland’s streets

Next time you board a bus in Scotland and it’s driving itself, don’t freak out — this is all part of a government plan to bring self-driving tech into the mainstream. Five fully autonomous buses will be taking to the streets near Edinburgh next month, announced Stagecoach, the UK’s largest bus and c

Digital twins could save your life. Here’s how

Digital twins — virtual replicas of real-world things — are already commonplace in manufacturing, industry, and aerospace. There are highly complex digital models of cities, ports, and power stations — but what about people? The idea of digital doppelgängers has long been confined to the realm of s

TNW València 2023 was a blast — here are our favourite moments

For 16 memorable years, TNW Conference has been at the center of Amsterdam’s tech ecosystem, but on March 30 and 31, TNW València brought — for the very first time — the heart of tech to Spain’s east coast. But we didn’t choose Valencia simply for its bright blue sea, delicious paellas, or sunny wea

Mammoth meatball beef exposes foodtech’s patent problem

A bitter feud has erupted over who first resurrected the woolly mammoth — as a meatball. The de-extinct delicacy was unveiled last week at Nemo Science Museum in the Netherlands. Naturally, no mammoths were harmed in the making of this product — and nor were any other animals. In lieu of dead flesh,

Everything you need to know about building a career in the gaming industry